Minolta DiMAGE S404 review updated with results from full production model!By
Dave Etchells(Friday, May 3, 2002 - 17:11 EDT)4 megapixel, 4x optical zoom digicam review updated with final conclusions...This update has certainly been a long time coming, apologies for the delay! I first reviewed Minolta's DiMAGE S404 back at the beginning of February, and am only now revisiting the product with a full suite of photos and other tests based on a production model. Like the other current high-end Minolta cameras the S404 uses its own color space, to sidestep some of the limitations of the sRGB standard. This does impose a need to run its photos through the provided DiMAGE Viewer program to convert their color to whatever space you happen to be using. (Which for most users will be sRGB anyway.)

While this is a bit of a hassle, the DiMAGE Viewer utility does support batch processing, so it's not too hard to just run everything through it anyway. Given the amount of confusion over this though, I took the unusual step of providing dual samples of pretty much all my test shots, one set in the original camera color space, the other in sRGB. - That way, you can all check out the actual differences between the two for yourselves.

The bottom line on this camera is that it has the excellent optics I've found in Minolta's other high-end models, very good color, and a raft of exposure controls and features. Overall, I called it the best bargain in the 4 megapixel category currently on the market. Check it out!